Some Scenes from a Thanksgiving in France

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The Pilgrims didn't come to France.

So there's no Thanksgiving here. 

Unless you happen to be an American ex-pat. With a craving for pumpkin pie.
My Thanksgiving in France was a little different, but wonderful.


I worked on Thursday, spending the day telling French children that Thanksgiving is a day for family, food and thinking about all the good things that have happened in the past year. 

I'm thankful that I have a job that I enjoy, 
with students I love.

Thursday night (or rather, very early Friday morning) I Skype-ed with my extended family at my grandparents' house. Best moment? My grandpa's surprised face when my cousin put the computer in his lap. "Can she hear me? Well, isn't that the darndest thing." This is a man who doesn't even use the telephone. I can't say it enough: Skype=Magic.

I'm thankful, SO thankful, for my wonderful family. 

Their support and love are so important to me.

I'm also thankful for the technology that lets me stay 

in touch with  family and friends.

Friday, I celebrated with most of the other Americans I know and a British friend, who we introduced to Thanksgiving. Poor girl. We might have put her in a food coma. We all made so much food. It was delicious, and we piled it all on our plates. No French-style courses for us today!

I'm thankful for my friends: the old, 
whom I miss like crazy, and the new.

{Yum. Yum. Yum.}

The one thing I had to have for my Thanksgiving was pumpkin pie. But there is no canned pumpkin in France, and most of you know that I'm not much of a chef. I managed, however, to make my mom's wonderful pie crust by myself for the first time, to buy a pumpkin and to roast it up. 

I'm thankful for pumpkin pie and comfort food. 

And learning to cook.

{Hey, what's this on my shoulder?    Ahh, it's so big!
Boom-boxes are so last Thanksgiving. Pumpkins are my accessory choice }

{I think it knows what's coming. }

And it actually turned into a pie!

{Kirsty had her first pumpkin pie!}

The next day, I had my very own "Black Saturday" at IKEA with Kirsty and Brad. IKEA had almost all the crowds and none of the sales of a Black Friday. But I didn't have to get up at 3 in the morning. And I now have a cutting board!

I'm thankful that there are countries where 

the words "Black Friday" have no meaning.

I'm also thankful for the Swedish.

These are just some of the things I'm currently thankful for. What about you? Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

This Week, in Review

Things have been a little quiet around here for a few days.  I've been away from my dear Mac and unable to post.

Update commencing now: I worked on Tuesday, which went really well. I got to assist in a few classes, then run some groups all by myself. My schedule is more organized now. C'est excellent.
However, I also worked with one teacher who couldn't understand my accent at all. Our conversations went like this:
Me: "I live in Elbeuf."
Teacher: "You what?"
Me: "I...live...in...Elbeuf."
Teacher: Confused look
Me: "In Elbeuf. My apartment is in Elbeuf."
Teacher: "Oh you live in Elbeuf."

Sigh. Every time I think I'm making great leaps in my speaking ability, something like this happens.

In other news, I also got to bake this week.  It's something I rarely did in the States, except for special occasions. However, right now various factors (small oven, lack of necessary supplies) make baking difficult . This, of course, makes me want to bake more.

This week, Thursday was un jour férié for Armistice Day. This meant no school, so I was free to attend a youth conference in Paris with my church.  It also meant no buses, which was going to make it hard to get to Rouen Thursday morning. So I spent the night with Jean, a young American missionary from my church. We had made plans for me to stay over Thursday night so we could do some scrapbooking, so she kindly let me extend my stay.

It was excellent. I really enjoyed spending time with her, plus she fed me delicious food and showed me the only fabric store in Rouen. She's been here over two years, so she has a fully stocked kitchen. Vanilla, molasses, spatulas, a kitchen timer, and more; it was a beautiful thing.  We made sugar cookies and molasses crinkles. Yum! 

The youth conference in Paris was interesting. A little difficult (because it was on the subject of Evolution and Creation, which usually involves science words that I don't understand in English, much less in French) but interesting. 

I also got to have dinner Friday at my pastor's house, and Saturday night some friends made Tarte Flambee and had a little dinner party. Then Sunday after church les Americaines were invited to one of the college student's apartment for lunch. We had a great time: pizza, chicken, potatoes, rice, fish, ice cream, Uno complete with head-smacking, and people laughing (kindly, I think) at my French. 

It was a good week-end, but I'm glad to be back at my apartment. Time to relax and wash all the dishes I left in my sink.

I miss you all!